


Bother

by tielan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-27
Updated: 2011-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:45:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are some things Rodney doesn't bother to do. Like knock.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bother

There are a lot of things Rodney doesn’t bother to do.

He doesn’t bother to pay attention if he doesn’t think it’s important. He doesn’t bother to rush if it’s not something he thinks is urgent. And he doesn’t bother to knock when he’s seeing why Sheppard hasn’t turned up for a scheduled test down at the chair half an hour ago.

The doors to Sheppard’s room hiss open and Rodney looks from the rumpled sheets being hastily dragged up over Sheppard’s body to the hands that have frozen at the collar of the shirt barely covering Teyla’s butt.

It doesn’t take an astrophysicist to see the whole picture.

Teyla glances over her shoulder at Rodney, and continues to adjust the jacket on her shoulders, even as she turns towards the door.

He shouldn’t be staring at the slender brown legs that vanish under the military-issue grey - certainly not with Sheppard sitting up in the bed three metres away, clearly butt-naked beneath the concealing sheets - but he can’t help taking a good long look and think briefly that life is unfair.

Captain Kirk does it again.

Okay, so it’s not that unexpected. Rodney is John Sheppard’s best friend in two galaxies, and if he ignores what’s going on around him, it doesn’t mean he’s unaware of it.

“Right,” he says, rallying. “So, if you two are finished, maybe Sheppard could come and, oh, I don’t know, actually _help_ with the chair testing we were supposed to start half an hour ago?”

“I was delayed,” says Sheppard, cool and possessive. Rodney doesn’t know how a man manages to look possessive when he’s pink as Cadman’s lipstick where the sheets aren’t covering him, but Sheppard does it. “I’ll be there in fifteen. Unless Teyla wants me for anything else.”

Teyla’s smile would make the Mona Lisa jealous. “I believe I am finished with you. For the moment.”

“But you’ll want me later?”

“Yes.”

Rodney rolls his eyes. “Spare me the flirting, you two, I haven’t got all day.”

“You know, Rodney, you could have contacted me on the earpiece. Or knocked first.”

“We tried that. You weren’t answering on the earpiece; and I didn’t expect to find Teyla here.” He glances over Teyla as she crosses the room to climb on the bed, and thinks of the old adage - _good things come in small packages._

Is that a shadow of pink lace beneath the shirt hem?

 _Very_ unfair.

Sheppard tilts his head to the side, then twitches as Teyla skims fingers down his spine. “Hey!”

“Rodney, get out.” But Teyla’s not looking at him.

 _Oh, God._ “Fifteen minutes,” he tells Sheppard - if the man’s even listening. Rodney doubts it.

“Out, Rodney.”

Rodney gets out before things get too heated, because otherwise he might be tempted to watch. Or possibly participate.

But he sets an external lock on the door so it can only be opened from the inside.

There are some things he doesn’t bother to do.

There are some things he does.


End file.
